IN THE NEWS — JIMMY CARTER; ALSO THE GHOST OF J.EDGAR

Jimmy Carter’s presidency
was short and flawed. But his ex-presidency is long and remarkable. No
ex-president can match him in integrity, courage and commitment to peace and
humanity. He goes anywhere, talks with anyone, brings antagonists together to
seek paths to peace. Also, much to his credit, he was the first US leader to
dare to give Israel’s occupation the name it deserves: apartheid.

His proposal to
end the Syrian crisis is not based on military strikes from any side in the
conflict, nor on the US ultimatum that Assad’s ouster is a pre-condition for
any cooperation among interested parties. It is to bring together representatives
of rival nations who have a common
interest in ending the catastrophic civil war and defeating ISIS. Transition to
a reformed and more stable Syria could emerge from negotiations arranged by the
United Nations and inclusive of the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey and
Saudi Arabia. That’s the formula that
worked in the P+1 Iran agreement.That,
not bombs and “no fly zones”, is the way forward.

It’s crucial to
require presidential candidates Sanders and Clinton to endorse the Carter plan.
That, along with opposition to the Trans Pacific Trade Pact, might make
Hillary’s relationship with the neocons considerably less cozy.

An FBI Chief and Shades of
J. Edgar Hoover

"With his remarks, Mr. Comey lent the prestige
of the F.B.I., the nation’s most prominent law enforcement agency, to a theory
that is far from settled: that the increased attention on the police has made
officers less aggressive and emboldened criminals." (NY Times)

Much of the nation is opening
its eyes to racist patterns of lethal violence and brutality in police conduct,
as well as in the justice and prison systems. Now, the voice of J. Edgar Hover
rises from the grave through the medium of current FBI Director, James B.
Comey. Let’s remember. Liberals and progressives who got their FBI files could
not fail to note a pervasive preoccupation with race. If you are white and
associate with blacks or are active in civil rights causes, that’s reason for
suspicion and surveillance. (For me, the first item in my file was a censored
letter sent to me while I was in the army: the correspondent noted that
visiting French troops were integrated and complained that ours were
segregated.)If you demonstrated to
protest the lynching of Willie McGee, you’re considered a subversive. Of
course, if you’re Martin Luther King, or any black activist, you are targeted
for slander and counter-intelligence schemes, and if you’re a Black Panther you
can be shot dead.

Don’t let that
legacy go on.The biggest problem of our
surveillance and “security” state is that the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI are
hidden from public scrutiny and are not accountable when they violate laws,
abuse civil rights, or even when they have engaged in torture.The FBI Chief should not be inciting more
police aggression at this critical and volatile time. Comey should go.COMMENTS

Linda Asher:Yes, Carter has been invaluable, and on top of that not
self-vaunting, self-glorifying. He keeps his eye and hand on reason,
compassion, and effective possibilities. There are still jerks out there
who take the time to vilify him. And
Comey: He behaved well in that one refusal to do Cheney's will (in the
hospital room) soone thought he
might have a mind of his own, or at least a determination to do no wrong by
falling into the judgments of others. In the black panthers film, a great
(and to me unfamiliar) line from Hoover was (quote imprecise--you
can straighten me out ) in response to query about surveillance and Justice :
" Justice takes a back seat to public safety concerns. " His
monstrosity (and freakiness!) remains unacknowledged by most public
figures.

Paul Taub:Very interesting ideas from President Carter, I totally agree with
you about how important his post-Presidency work has been. I bet we’ll look at
Obama in the same way in another 25 years, it’ll be interesting to see where he
focuses his attention after 2016!

Sally H: Since
you don't have an icon on your blog to post to FaceBook, I have to ask: may I
put a link to the current Carter/F.B.I. blog on my FB page? Both subjects
are covered in ways I'd like to put my name behind.

1 comment:

I agree. The surveillance and security operatives are largely immune from prosecution regardless of extensive violations. My own FBI file, which I obtained after numerous obstacles, notes that I can read and write Yiddish. Horrors!!! I suspect that my father's Yiddish letters to me when I was in the service, may have been the source of that information.

About Me

Leon Wofsy is Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology / Immunology at the University of California at Berkeley. His career in science and academia began when he was almost forty years old. Earlier, for more than fifteen years, he was a leader of Marxist youth organizations. That experience began during the student upheavals at New York’s City College (CCNY) in the late 1930s, and encompassed the time of McCarthyism in the 1950s. He became a professor at UC Berkeley in 1964 just as the Free Speech Movement was about to erupt. He is the author of many scientific papers and articles on social issues. He edited a book on the Cold War, Before the Point of No Return (Monthly Review Press, 1986). His memoir, Looking for the Future (IW Rose Press, 1995) is available online in the Free Speech Movement Archives, Book Collection, UC Bancroft Library.